Bob Keisser: Clippers' Chris Paul may have gotten his man

Step aside, Kobe Bryant. You no longer are the NBA star with the most juice in Los Angeles.

That title goes to Chris Paul, the Clippers guard who exercised his will, and his opportunity, to play elsewhere to get the Clippers to land Doc Rivers as their coach. The Clippers sent Boston a future first-round pick to allow Rivers out of his Celtics contract.

Anyone who says a first-round pick is too much for a coach is forgetting it's a two-for-one deal. If the Clippers don't get Rivers, Paul likely leaves and the franchise's hope of playing for an NBA title leaves with him.

It didn't take someone with perfect vision to know Paul and former coach Vinny Del Negro weren't a good fit, and once the Clippers folded in the first round Del Negro was gone. But keeping Paul required more than Bryan Shaw (no head coaching experience), Byron Scott (fired three times) or Lionel Hollins (fired last month).

On paper, all the Clippers need is a coach with a clue. They had a 10-deep roster when everyone was healthy and four young players a team can build around for the future. The Clippers have three things left on their to-do list:

1. Get Paul's name on a five-year contract.

2. Call Mitch Kupchak and tell the Lakers' GM they were just kidding about that Griffin-for-Dwight Howard trade.

3. Not give in to the temptation to trade 24-year-old center DeAndre Jordan to Boston for someone twice as old, Kevin Garnett. OK, Garnett is only 37 but the point's obvious. You can build a team for a year or two or build a franchise.

None of this is guaranteed because Donald T. Sterling still is the team's owner.

Bryant must be going ballistic seeing the Clippers get their man while he's been stuck playing for Mike Brown and Mike D'Antoni the past two seasons. Love him or hate him, you check with your superstar before making decisions like that.

The Lakers return a core group of seven players and six of them are in their 30s, and the seventh is Howard, the guy with a Ferrari body and a Chevy Vega engine.

And Bryant will be coming back from a major injury. Given that, one should take the Lakers at face value when they talk about getting under the luxury cap.

Rivers went to Marquette, but he didn't play for Al McGuire or Rick Majerus. Hank Raymond was the coach at the time. Majerus became coach a year after Rivers went to the NBA. He's the one who gave Rivers his nickname because he always wore a Dr. J (Julius Irving) T-shirt

Rivers nine seasons as a coach in Orlando and Boston to win a playoff series, and the year he did was 2008, when the Celtics imported Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen and went from 24 wins in '07 to 66 in '08.

I think Greg Popovich is a great coach, but his fourth quarter Game 6 personnel decisions led to Miami's comeback, and his refusal to take Manu Ginobili off the court in the fourth quarter helped the Heat win Game 7.

Rivers becomes the 24th different Clippers coach in the club's 43 seasons, and that doesn't include two coaches who had two stints on the bench. They should have a separate line at the unemployment office for Clipper coaches.